Where Does Your Baby Nap &amp; For How Long?

So, DS is 5 months old and he likes to cat nap through the day - 20 minutes here, 40 minutes here, etc in the living room where I am, either in his swing or bouncing chair. My mom told me the other day I was slitting my own throat by allowing this. He sleeps through the night and perfectly fine in his crib- when it is bedtime, he knows it and he goes right to sleep. I was just wondering if anyone had an input on her comment if I really was, or what? And if I am, how often and for how long should he be napping?!

ds could sleep his life away in his swing..at 4.5months i began letting him fall asleep on his own in his bed...i think at this time it's 2 naps a day or so about 2 hours am 2 hours in the afternoon or so thats what i was told but ds naps about an hour in the am most days...2-3 in the afternoon and about 30 mins in the evening sometimes

my girl is 17 weeks tomarrow and this sounds like her. she still sleeps in my room in her pack n play but i do put her in her crib from time to time to nap. i was trying to remember when my son was on a more scheduled nap time but i cant. of course some will say dont do this or you are spoiling blah blah blah. i will hold my baby when i want to and let her nap where i am if i want to be near her lol.

Thanks for the comments- do you think its okay that he doesn't usually nap for 1+ hours at a time? I don't know if I am doing something wrong and preventing him from being on a schedule...? After posting this I put him in his crib for a nap and he fell asleep, which was good- he's been asleep at least 1/2 hour. Maybe I should just start letting him fall asleep in there and then he will sleep longer.

I was so concerned with sleep. I kept talking to my cousin about it and she kept telling me 6 months is the magic number. I didnt really put much into it until AJ turned 6 months and boom...a schedule. Id give it just a bit of time and see what happens. Chances are those 20 min cap naps may be leading to a schedule of 2-3 naps per day. on the sleeping where ever...AJ does not always nap in his crib. He always napped where ever he was. Now that I know he is going to sleep at 10 am 2 pm and 5 pm and to bed at night at 8:30, I can make sure he is where I want him at those times and no it is not always in a crib. i always liked that he would sleep when he was tired where ever he was because that meant that he could sooth himself enough to go to bed on his own. When I was focused on him sleeping in his crib, I would end up rocking him or tricking him by letting him sleep on me and put him in the crib. Like I said, now he falls asleep on his own where ever he is, home or not, at particular times and if it happens to be in the crib he is happy with that too. The one tip she gave me was not to pay attention to how long he can sleep but pay attention to how long he can stay awake. Like if you realize he falls asleep in his tracks as soon as he is awake for 3 hours, make sure he is awake at 5 pm if you want him in bed at 8. It also works really well if you have plans for a day.

I know what you mean. My son sleeps where ever I am also. If I'm in the livingroom, he will fall asleep in the swing. He sleeps fine in his crib at night also. However, I see what your mom is saying. When he sleeps in his swing, he's out for a good 2-3 hour nap in the morning and 1/2 to 1 hour cat naps throughout the day. When he's in his crib for nap time he will only sleep short periods of time. So she's probably thinking that once he grows out of the swing and bouncy chair that he won't sleep as long in his crib. But it seems that your ds isn't having that problem at all. I'm thinking by the time my son grows out of that swing he will already have a napping schedule and it won't be a 3 hour nap that he will take. So I wouldn't worry about it.

Well, I can kind of see what she means too because when I have another baby, having DS out for a few hours 1-2 times a day would be very nice and helpful! But right now, what he is doing is catnaps even in his swing and that. I think I will just wait it out til that 6 months, but when I notice he's starting to get sleepy, put him in his crib and see if he'll nap. He napped today in his crib (doing this) for 1.5 hours which is much longer than he normally does. He fell asleep on his barnyard play mat just now, and has been asleep for about 10 minutes now too. So... I won't get too worried about it and just see what happens :)

I am trying to get mine to nap in their cribs and it's a nightmare. They sleep great in them at night, but refuse during the day. I let them nap in swings, boppys, etc., so it may be my own fault. Ugh, I'm so frustrated at trying to teach them to nap in cribs!

Nap, what's that? Between my two boys, they have me going constantly. I'm luck if I can get them to lay down at the same time for more than 20-30 minutes. It's driving me crazy. How old were everybody's babies when they started sleeping good? We can't even get ours to sleep in their cribs.

Some children cat nap (short naps) and others take one or two really long naps. My DD is going to be 1 in a couple weeks (YAY!) and she takes two long naps in her crib during the day.

When she was younger, she slept wherever she was for little cat naps (bouncer, swing, my arms, etc.). Probably around 9 months you'll want to transition naps to the crib because 9 months is when they start becoming very curious, indepedent, maybe mobile (crawling or scooting) and they begin to become really attached to routine at this age.

I think a lot of babies start to take the 2 naps a day at 6 months or so. But then, there are plenty of other kids (like my three!) that never cooperated that well.

My older daughter always took 2-3 short catnaps (usually in her crib) until she was about 18 months. Then, FINALLY, she transitioned to 1 very predictable 2 hr afternoon nap. I now have 8mo old twins. They seem like they are falling into the same pattern. No matter what I do, they just wont sleep for more than like 30 min at a time. I'm just hoping it gets better when they are a little older.

I do think transitioning the nap to the crib soon is a good idea because it wont be long before your little guy is too big for the swings and bouncy seats! Good Luck.

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